hi, i visited a friend yesterday, she has had a pair of goldfish for some time, one black with big eyes, excluding the fins, he is about 3 inches long and quite fat, the other is a standard gold fish. the tank she had (which was regularly very dirty, had cracked and for over a week, the fish where in a vase. when i arrived yesterday, i commented that the water was incredibly cloudy and that the fish looked like they where gasping. I told her off!! i thoroughly cleaned the sink and put them in there with fresh water. i suggsted that i take them off her hands as she clearly could not manage them. both are approx 2 years old. i took them home this morning in a big pot of water. I have never kept fish before, so went to the local petshop and was advised to buy a gold fish starter kit which is essentially a bowl that holds approx 10 litres of water. they seem happy enough in there, although i do think it looks very small. how long is it fair to keep them in their before upgrading? i really cant afford a huge tank and all the adornments, but i do want them to live happily. any advice on things i should and should not do to give them a pleasent life would be greatly accepted. also, i had an idea of buying a large storage box (a clear hard plastic one with a lid, I thought i could cut out a section of th? my friend has a pump to give me, but to be honest, it is way too big for this bowl i currently have.

By no means can you keep two goldfish in a 10 liter bowl without filtration. This is going to give you a load of problems with water quality, which will lead to diseased fish. The people at the pet store should get a big boot up their asses for even trying to sell that kind of "tank" to you.I don't know how big these fish are, but maybe you could try affording at least a 50-60 liter tank for them? Simply, the bigger the better if you want to keep the goldfish happy. If the second goldfish is a common to boot, he would need at least a 100 liter, because commons have this streamlined body and are quite fast swimmers and therefore they need big tanks to thrive. (They'd do best in a pond) This is also a reason as to why it's not very good to keep a black moor (telescope eye) with it, since these don't see to well because of their protruding eyes and are bit slower swimmers because of their egg-shaped bodies.And don't put them into a plastic box, please. I think that would be more suitable for a shorter period of stay, like when treating with medicine or something. So in the long run, it would be the easiest and best for you to do it the simple way and invest in a proper tank. Try looking around for some second-hand tanks in good shape! They might have some in the pet shops around (:

When we bought our two goldfish, 2 comets, for the first 5 days we had them in a starter tank about 7 l. ( remarkable that we were not told this at the petshop where we bought our fish, because we told them about the tanksize we had )We quickly learnt that this is not right, as the water was cloudy the 3rd day. I did a 30% waterchange, and we invested in a 34 l tank, asap. They say for comets at least 10 l for each. I do not know about commons, but I believe Nossie, as she is really smart on goldfish knowledge and I appreciate her advice so much.Yes, have a look for a second hand tank asap and very important with filtration. We also put an airstone in and our fish enjoy all the airbubbles.Also have a read through the different topics in this forum. VERY INFORMATIVE, GOOD SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE.

Enjoy your new fish, maybe you can post some pics?And I am so glad you rescued those little buddies and give them a lovely home and keep them happy.

Hanna: Oh, I missed that size part xD Sorry. And acrylic tanks use to be more expensive than glass tanks. For what reason, I'm not sure d: Since acrylic gets scratched very easily, and can turn yellowish after a couple of years. It's stronger than glass though!

But with them being about 3 inches, the absolutely smallest tank you can get is 60-70 liters. I wouldn't recommend anything smaller.

Nossie, you may be right, I am not really familiar with tank prices, we only have seen some acrylic ones at K-mart for $40 ( 25 l ones) and our glass one with 34 l was almost 4 times more expensive . Anyway, it could have been a special, lol, not to worry.

I cleaned the tank yesterday, redecorated and gave some peas to Humphrey and Hepsiba, thawed ones, shelled and cut into tiny pieces. AND THEY ATE THEM, yay!!!

DARNIT! I forgot to pick up fish treats for Tiger and Sonorus! oh well next time I go out. I found the st*pid bloodworms that are supposed to be good for fish.. but I ran out of money (redecorated the tank! yay! and a new bubbler! also yay!)

you should have seen Hepsiba, or was it Humphrey? I still do not know which is male or female, lol.She or he took 2-3 pieces in her/his little mouth and chewed and chewed, had one tiny piece hanging out and to be honest I was scared for a while that our fishie will choke.But they are very alive and one is chasing the other tipping with its little mouth on the others belly, also swimming around the others body, as if they want to dance.

While cleaning yesterday I broke the airstone, so today we are going to get a new one, I did not realise they are so fragile. At the moment it is bubbling with one stream of big airbubbles. We also bought a little statue, a diver with a treasure box, it will bubble too, after we fixed the airstone.And we got them another type of food too, so we can give them different things: Goldfish Crisps (TetraFin)Always love to buy them a little present,

Katarine, what are you using for fish treats?Is it those bloodworms? Aren't they too big for little fishies? How do they look like and are they very important to be fed to goldfish, or can I go without them?

Redecorated too, with a little statue as mentioned in my other post, was like renovating, lol

hahaha I'm not feeding them any treats at the moment. I just thought it would be good to try something new. and as for the bloodworm things, they're freeze dried and put into like a fish food container. so thats what I was gonna feed them. I'll pick them up next weekend. Till then, Ill feed them some peas for supper. and yea airstones are really friggin fragile! so are the test tubes you get in the testing kits.. I broke one of mine today and I cut myself on the glass (go figure.. ) so I'm gonna have to use just the one for now. if I break the other one im screwed hahahahahahahaha

hahahaha Katarine,I think I got you, so with treats you mean medication? And I thought treats may be some special food, lol.I need to hold my tummy, I'm laughing. It is so good on this forum, not only to share experience, info, sorrows, but also to have fun together, hahahaha

hahahaha not quite Hanna There are actually things like goldfish treats (like dog biscuits.. only not biscuits and for fish) blood worms are high in protien, so its good for fish as well as being a nice little 'treat' to go alongside their regular food.

Actually, feeding young goldfish with freeze dried or frozen live foods is very important for them to grow well as they need the protein there. Therefore bloodworms, tubifex, krill and the like is rather not to be considered a treat, but a supplement to their diet. And since you seem to have rather young fish (Hanna) it would be really good to get them some fresh foods. I use to give bloodworms to my fish twice a week and they've developed pretty bumps on their backs and gotten deeper and nicer bodies C:

Mine go nuts over green leaf lettuce (well, everyone except Spot, who hates veggies). We bought a cute clip shaped like a fish with a suction cup on it, and we rinse the lettuce, put it in the clip, put the clip in the tank, and let them eat. We take the clip out after about four hours or when the leaf is nibbled away, whichever comes first. You can even share with your fishies- they have a leaf, you have a salad.

yeah, my guys love the blood worms as well, and its funny and kind of sick to watch them attack that frozen cube of worms....the cube starts melting and you can really see the worms.....I give them the tubifex worms too, usually 1 worm cube on a Wednesday and the other on the weekend at some point, then normally a bit of flakes, and a bit of pellets, and every few days I thow an algae disc in there, they love to huddle around and pick at those.....too much fun, I tell ya.

It's really important for orandas to have protein. High protein a few times a week helps to develop the wen properly. Blood worms and other types of worms and freeze dried shrimp also are higher in protein.